8/21    Okay, I finally did it.  I switched to mutt.  Not very painful.  Are you
        all happy now? --former pine user

8/21    wow, the Motd Butcher is really going at it today.  Why don't you let
        a thread live for more than 8 minutes?

8/22    In C, Is there any advantage for writing "if (5 == i) {...}" instead
        of "if (i == 5) {...}"?  All the sample code in a book I'm reading uses
        the former style.
        \_ just code both versions, and have gcc dump the assembly out
           and compare.
           \- this is kind of interesting exercise if you really care about
              perf in some opart of your code. we noticed and older gcc
              generated diff asm for i++ and ++i in one instance where it
              really shouldnt have mattered much and there was a measureable
              perf diff. ok tnx.
        \_ It depends on the compiler but this is such a simple bit of code
           that any compiler should do the right thing no matter which way
           you do it.  Your book is a bit screwy.  Does the author say why
           they chose that style?  It's definitely non-STANDARD.
           \_ It's the "Developing Windows NT Device Drivers" book.  The
              preface explains the reasons behind other styles used in the
              example but doesn't explain the "if" style.
        \_ the former style causes a syntax error if you mistakenly
           use the assignment operator '=' instead of compare '=='.
           the same mistake in the latter style is harder to detect,
           although some compilers (gnu) can generate a warning in
           certain cases.
           \_ Yeah but who reads warnings anyway?  95% of gpl stuff compiles
              with screen fulls and still works and never gets fixed.
           \_ Good point!  That must be it.  Thx.
           \_ Yeah, that used to be the advice.  However, in around 10 years of
              programming, I've only been nailed by that a few times.  And I
              prefer my code to be easy to read.
              \_ I second that.  (5 == i) is annoying.

8/21    links or w3m?
        \_ is this like the hooker, santa claus, and easter bunny joke?
           \_ What's that joke?
           \_ I typed it but it does not work
        \_ definitely w3m.
        \_ Or lynx?
        \_ telnet foo 80 ; GET /

8/21    My browser shows a lot of ?/b> and weird HTML flags when I'm not
        suppose to see them. Is it the site or the browser?
        \_ Try the same page in a different browser and see.
        \_ load it up in MSIE, if it looks right, its your browser's fault
           <smirk>
        \_ What browser?  Don't they teach you kids *any* sort of debugging
           skills anymore?  Does Cal no longer force kids to learn how to
           think?
           \_ Explain this... this... 'think' thing.
              \_ ....  (what more is there to say?)
        \_ Run it through the HTML validator: http://validator.w3.org
           If it is invalid HTML (as most web pages are) write to the author
           and tell them to learn to write valid HTML. What is the URL?
                \_ it's a http://cnn.com page. I ran the exact same page on another
                   machine and there's no problem. Curiously though they're
                   both running the exact same versions of IE. -original guy
        \_ Does your browser have multi-lingual support? The problem might
           be because it's trying to encode the page in a different language.
        \_ It looks like XHTML or something of that sort. Maybe your browser
           doesn't support it. but the site is sumb enough to show it to you
           anyway.

8/21    Current mutt requests:
        How do I bind multiple keys to the same function?
        What's the URL for the pine-style .muttrc?
        \_ er..  just put in another bind line.  binds do not substitute
           each other --scotsman
        \_ Use pine.
        \_ Yeah, pine is definitely the answer.  Or nmh.  Who told you to
           use mutt?  Either go for it and use the real thing like mh or
           just stick with a toy like pine.  Why go half way?

8/21    What happened to catdoc? what are better way to view Word
        document?
        \_ wvHtml, part of the wv package.  Which isn't installed on soda
           ... yet. -geordan
        \_ surprisingly you can get 99% of the text out of a word doc with
           'strings'.  Yes, the formatting is totally fucked up, etc, but
           if you only need to read the text, it will do that.
           \_ Also you get the added fun of seeing all the revisions tacked
              on to the end.  I forget who it was that received a form
              generated offer letter in Doc format and read it with
              strings|more, and saw the names of previously accepted
              people at the end. -geordan
              \_ Someone forgot to turn off Fast Save.

8/21    How can I force the links www browser to allow me to highlight
        text on a web page (eg, for copy/paste)?
        \_ hold down shift; this goes for most if not all apps that
           depend on xterm for mouse input. -alexf

8/21    http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1540867
        "It was like, `Kill them all and let God sort them out,' " said
        the other supervisor. "I guess we're just lucky he didn't order us
        to fire warning shots into the crowd or anything."
        \_ URL worthiness meter to save yall time:
           worthwhile:
           worthless:  .............
           \_ Since when is the motd about saving time?
        \_ Aw, lovely Houston.  This is another reason to stay the hell
           away from Texas and the south.
        \_ just a bunch of pigs measuring their little weenies
        \_ If any of you jackasses had actually read anything about it, you'd
           know it was the result of one cop who making a bad decision, but
           of course it isn't necessary around here to actually know wtf you're
           talking about to have a valid opinion.
           \_ Tell us all about it, then, master of obscure Texas local news.
              \_ Dude.  Be serious.  Its an exercise in simple reading
                 comprehension.  The captain in charge of the operation made
                 an unbeliveably bad call when circumstances were beginning to
                 show that the raid was going to be fruitless.  The "Kill
                 them all" quote is taken so horribly out of context it
                 conveys almost nothing about the actual events that took
                 place.  Try reading the article.          -mice
                 \_ I dunno. It reads like a miniature version of the 1000+
                    folks arrested as possible terrorists by the Feds, held
                    without access to lawyers and denied Constitutional rights.
                    Even now as the Fed raid is proving fruitless, no one is
                    taking any blame for it. In the Texas case, hundreds of
                    folks have a criminal record for being at the wrong spot
                    at the wrong time. I hate to see the lawsuits that are
                    going to come from both of these instances...
                    \_ Oh they do not have a crimincal record.  This is just
                       a load of hyperbole crap.  "Oh! Oh! Come see the
                       violence inherent in the system!  Help! Help! I'm
                       being oppressed!  The sky is falling!"  When *everying*
                       is constitution ripping oppression and everything is
                       racist and everything is sexist and blah blah blah then
                       you dilute the power of the words so there's nothing
                       left to distinguish *real* oppression and racism and
                       sexism from this sort of endless whining.  Get over it.
                       \_ i believe the monty python quote you are aiming
                          for is "help! help! I'm being repressed!"
                          perhaps you were just intending to paraphrase
                          monty python, and can be excused.
                          Any future crimes can be checked against their
                          official arrest record. It's not hyperbole, it can
                          be used against them later on.
                       \_ They were arrested. That is an official criminal
                          record. If the charge is tossed out by the judge,
                          that part of the record is purged, however part of
                          the arrest process is fingerprinting and photos.
                          The government now has this info to do what they
                          want with it. Employers requesting police records
                          as a job/security check may require the person has
                          to explain away the arrest. It's a pain.
                          \_ That's certainly true, but the stupidity
                             displayed by the man in charge is not unique
                             to Texas.  Stupidity of his sort is pretty
                             universally available.  That seems to be the
                             origin of this thread: that 'lovely Houston'
                             is somehow the issue and not one man's idiocy.
                             Of course, I'm starting to come off as an
                             apologist for Texas, which I'm not.  really.
                                                                   -mice
                \_ I did read it, but then someone who called me a jackass
                   claimed there was more to it, so I had to ask.
                   \_ Read it again and see the violence inherent in the
                      system, jackass.
        \_ Yeah, but what does FreeRepublic have to say about it?
           \_ Who?
           \_ Go there and find out.

8/2     How common is corp espionage? Is it common for spies to send out
        codes/source trees?
        \_ Quite.  Yes.
        \_ Avant! v Cadence.  Cadence v Synopsys.  etc
                \_ only EDA companies?

8/2     jw stop butchering the motd
        \_ I'm serious.  Stop it.  The motd is not that anonymous.  Let it be.
           \_ how long of a motd (# of lines, # of topics) are you comfortable
              with, before it becomes noise?
                --jw, who does not want the motd to be soda's slashdot
                \_ I think a more resonable strategy for motd curbing ought
                   involve how active a thread is.  If people are still
                   posting to a given thread, then clobbering cuz it's
                   'too long' is lame.  If you don't have a good or reliable
                   metric to determine which threads are active, then perhaps
                   you might conisder the possibility that it's not
                   appropriate for you to be assigning truncation
                   responsibilities to yourself.  Perhaps an easier solution
                   is to let a given thread last at least a day or two before
                   nazi'ing it.
                   \_ we can arrange for the motd to be nazified completely
                      forever.
                      \_ So?  Shit or get off the pot.  No one NEEDS
                         motd.public.  Why waste time with this sort of
                         statement?
                   \_ having followed the motd for over 5 years, i do believe
                      i have a solid truncation metric. it considers the
                      factors you mentioned, in addition to whether the
                      latest additions/comments are still relevant, or if
                      the topic has been hijacked and rendered useless.
                      i don't know if the OP actually paid attention to
                      what i have excised, or if he is simply over-reacting
                      to a perceived censorship. --jw
                      \_ Granted on most of your points.  But some of the
                         points about hijacking and off-topic seem a little
                         bit subjective to me.  If people are interested in
                         a thread (even if it has wandered far afield) it
                         seems a touch too close to censorship to nuke because
                         some third party has abritrarily deemed it
                         inappropriate.
              \_ Becomes?

8/22    has anyone here sucked Stephen Wolphram's absurdly massive cock?
        is it worth a damn?
        \_ who?
        \_ You mean Stephen WOLFRAM the scientist?
                \_ WHO??? Is he a sexy scientist?

8/22    whew... back at work, back on the motd... its been a while.

8/22    I have some CDROMs and DLT tapes that need disposing of, but don't
        have a decent degausser/disintegrator at hand.  Since I'm on the
        Berkeley campus I assume there is someplace nearby with this capacity.
        Where should I look?
        \_ you have a disintegrator?  cool!
        \_ try LBL.  i am sure they have some strong magnetic fields.